Support for campaign to prevent destruction of Mecca

Dear Sirs

I have only just read your article on the destruction of Mecca
http://www.muslimparliament.org.uk/Mecca.htm

having found it only after the article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,,1947126,00.html

I am really worried about this because it creates an awful precedent.

The Muslim world is renowned for its respect for the past and for its careful preservation of ancient monuments - even those monuments which belong to other religions like the oldest Christian churches in the world in Syria and Iraq, or the very oldest synagogues throughout the Middle East. I speak as one who has been involved in archaeology all my life, and who is painfully aware of the abysmal record of the West in preserving, or rather NOT preserving its own heritage.

We in Britain have no past. I live in what was once a major Roman city and now there is absolutely nothing left here, as there is not a trace left of the once famous medieval abbey!

Now I am desperately worried that Saudi actions will provide the very precendent Israel seeks in order to destroy that perfect little jewel of Islamic architecture, the Dome of the Rock.

Please warn the Saudis that their destruction of the Muslim past could to lead to the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock - and therefore Al Quds itself!

Yours sincerely

Wynne
Gloucestershire, UK

14 Nov. 2006